Now is the time to put all of that debate to rest - this list contains all the civilizations and their specialties in Age of Empires II and all its expansions. economic boom beats defensive gameplay which in turn beats early rush strategy) down to individual units (e.g, infantry are generally powerful against buildings but weak against cavalry, thus the infantry counter units-spearmen and pikemen-have attack bonuses against cavalry).īecause of the attention paid towards making each civilization as balanced as possible, any discussion of the relative ranking of these civilizations in terms of overall strength is often hotly contested. This delicate balance of strengths and weaknesses extends all the way up from the overarching meta-strategy (e.g. In addition to their distinct art and play style, these civilizations have their unique set of advantages and disadvantages which are based fundamentally on a 'rock-paper-scissors' architecture.

Since its initial release as Age of Empires II: Age of Kings, four expansions to the game and an HD remake has also been produced - Age of Empires II: The Conquerors (2000), Age of Empires II: HD Edition (2013), Age of Empires II HD: The Forgotten (2013) (based on the fan-made Forgotten Empires), Age of Empires II HD: The African Kingdoms (2015) and Age of Empires II HD: Rise of the Rajas (2016).Īt the heart of the award-winning gameplay of AOE 2 are the civilizations that players are able to choose to play with. Developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft in 1999 as a sequel to the legendary Age of Empires, the game received 'universal acclaim' upon release and remains a staple for RTS fans to this day. Age of Empires II is one of the most beloved real-time strategy games of all time.

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